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There are actually two upcoming Heroes of Might and Magic for online play coming out. They are totally different: one is from France and the other is Asian.

The asian one "Heroes of Might and Magic Online" is somewhat similar to Heroes of Might and Magic III, in that it has maps, turn based combat, and even uses some of the exact same graphics. There are many problems with this game. I won't go into all of them but I will list the main reasons I wont be playing.

First, its not multiplayer. There are maps that you can walk your hero around with other players, and chat with them, and you can duel other players, but the actual game, where you run around defeating monsters is not a shared experience. The closest you get is a big map where you move from battle to battle at the same time as you friends, but the battles are separate.

I could get past this.

However, the battles are very very easy. I played about 10 hours 'with' a friend, and never lost a single battle. Always on auto-play. I rarely lost any troops. After that much time, we never figured out what the point of the game is. You run quests and get loot, and over days slowly upgrade your castle. For me, the only possible purpose for grinding all this out would be to play in arenas and duels.

The key problem then, is that this is a micro-transactions game, and the good loot is purchased. Thus, this is the epitome of an asian grinder: you grind for literally weeks and weeks and spend real money on in-game items so you can, i guess, be uber. To what end I have no idea.

Overall, its plausible, though unlikely, that someone would have fun playing this game.

The French one, called "Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms", is ... inexplicable. Apparently the idea of the game is to compete with farmville. Sounds like a great idea! I played this for about 5 minutes...and then had to wait 2 hours for my next turn...

Kingdoms is not a lot like any of the previous Heroes of Might and Magic games. Ignore that its a web-based game. Ignore that the graphics are not so great. The game play is not like any heroes before it. You click on a few things, and then literally have to wait hours for anything to happen.

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It is a pity that HoMM isn't being released as a fully supported and fully developed MMO. The IP is a strong one after all these years, with each racial faction growing greatly in depth. Classes are already clean cut for each faction, the reason for the strife is well laid out for generations, and the MMO world needs a good MMO with 5+ factions (I don't really think the Dungeon faction needs to be playable, but that's just me).

Unfortunately, I doubt we'll ever see a good HoMM MMO, at least nothing even close to the depth the current series of true HoMM games give.

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Whenever a player engages in battle, the game changes from the adventure map display to a combat screen, which is based on either a hexagonal or square grid. In this mode, the game mimics the turn-based tactics genre, as the engaged armies must carry through the battle without the opportunity to reinforce or gracefully retreat. With few exceptions, combat must end with the losing army deserting or being destroyed, or paying a heavy price in gold to surrender. Surrendering allows the player to keep the remaining units intact.

Creatures in an army are represented by unit stacks, each of which consists of a single type of creature, in any quantity. A limited number of stacks are available to each army, varying by game. Players generally maneuver their stacks attempting to achieve the most favorable rate of attrition for themselves. The games also have an automatic combat option that allows the computer to make tactical choices for a player. Heroes participate in battle as well: passively by granting bonuses to their army, and actively by engaging in combat and casting spells. In most of the games, heroes do not act as units, and cannot be harmed. However, in Heroes IV they do act as regular units and can be "killed"; dead heroes are transferred to a dungeon where they can be re-recruited by the battle winner.

Combat is affected by several random factors. In addition to simulating dice rolls to determine damage, a variety of influences including hero abilities and special bonuses determine a unit's luck and morale ratings, which affect the likelihood of those units triggering a bonus during combat. A unit that triggers good luck deals more (or receives less) damage, and a unit that triggers high morale receives an extra turn. In some other games, luck and morale can also be negative, with opposite corresponding effects. Luck and morale can be improved by hero abilities, artifacts, and spells. Morale may suffer with overwhelming odds in combat or by mixing incompatible unit types (e.g. Chaos with Order.)